The WSSD School Board held its usual meeting tonight. The video is available on Youtube, and the agenda is available on Board Docs as usual. It was a short meeting with no focus topic.

The student representative reported on the many activities going on – the Halloween parades at elementary schools, spirit week at the middle school and the delayed homecoming outside at the high school. District sports teams are having successful seasons and many fundraisers are underway.

The superintendent’s report said that 45 students participated in the test-to-stay program and all tested negative, allowing them to remain in school. Covid numbers in the county remain high, but Gov. Wolf has announced the state’s mask mandate will end Jan 17th and the district will need to re-examine its masking policy. WSSD will host vaccination clinics at the middle school on Nov. 29th, Dec. 20th, and Jan 12h from 4-8 pm. Details will be on the district website soon. Every Child Counts and the Delaware County Medical Society will also be hosting vaccination clinics for children on Nov. 13th and 20th at NPE from 10 am – 1pm.

The superintendent also discussed the district calendar and the considerations going into its development. It was discussed at the Educational Affairs committee meeting this month and will be discussed again at the next meeting on Dec. 1st, along with the school start time report. On Jan 5th, the educational affairs committee will discuss the comprehensive plan and equity audit. The plan is for a final presentation to the board about the sleep/start time plan in January.

The facilities/finance committee will meet on Nov. 17th and Dec. 15th. The policy committee will restart on Nov. 23rd and possibly meet again on Dec. 22nd.

Registration is open for kindergarten for the 22/23 school year. Children must be registered by Feb. 25th to participate in the lottery. On Nov. 11th the SHHS marching band will participate in the Media Veteran’s Day parade. Nov. 13th is the Panther Pajama Run to support the Foundation for WSSD Schools. The schedule for the upcoming Thanksgiving break is school dependent, so check the website. The DelCo Turkey Trot is on Nov. 25th to support the NPE PTO.

There were no board comments and regular business passed largely without comment. It was Abbott’s last meeting in person before his upcoming retirement.

Kevin Henry reported on the Educational Affairs committee meeting. There was a discussion of the calendar and issues were raised such as starting pre/post labor day, acknowledging religious/cultural holidays, marking the start/end of terms, and developing a 2-year calendar. They also heard about federal education programs.

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